If there is a living refutation of the saying, “If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise,” it is President Bush. Perhaps it takes no ghost from the grave to tell us this; but his demand that the Kabul government destroy the poppy crop of Afghan tribesmen is a clincher.

The aim is to “deprive Taliban of funds” thereby; the result will assuredly be to further alienate the struggling tribesmen whose livelihoods are destroyed with their crops.

Yet the infinitely better solution is obvious: buy the crop, don’t destroy it. Buy it for a generous price, thus simultaneously (a) depriving the Taliban of a money-maker (b) cheering the Afghan tribesmen, and laying the basis for them to diversify economically, away from poppies, when peace comes, (c) get control of the opium supply, use as much as is necessary for medical opiates, and stockpile or burn the rest.

In comparison to the billions being spent on bombs, this looks like a comparatively cheap as well as sane and effective way to solve a number of problems in one blow.

But no: Washington’s choice is to lay waste the crops and with them the hearts and minds of their growers, adding to the recruitment pool of the Taliban, lengthening the war, costing the world far more in lives, money and misery.

Surely there is a statesman somewhere — Gordon Brown? President Sarkozy? — with enough of Washington’s ear to urge the better course of action, able to do the sums to show that buying poppies to help stop a war has to be a far cheaper option than using them to commemorate war dead.

In the short term the move would encourage poppy growing, of course, and naysayers will argue that this exacerbates a different problem. This different problem was originally created by outlawing certain kinds of drugs and there is a powerful case for legalising all drugs and managing their accessibility and quality exactly as nicotine and alcohol are controlled.

Sights you seldom see include a cabinet meeting waking up to the futility and absurdity of laws that, from gangland shootings in Manchester to the Taliban in Helmand province, create problems we do not have to have.

Guardian